Transceiver systems in wireless communication networks perform the control functions for directing signals among communicating subscribers, or terminals, as well as communication with external networks. Transceiver systems in wireless communications networks include radio base stations and distributed antenna systems (DAS). For the reverse link, or uplink, a terminal transmits the RF signal received by the transceiver system. For the forward link, or downlink, the transceiver system transmits the RF signal to a subscriber, or terminal, in the wireless network. A terminal may be fixed or mobile wireless user equipment unit (UE) and may be a wireless device, cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer or other device equipped with a wireless modem.
The rapid increase in data (e.g., video) communication and content consumption has led to expansion of wireless communication networks. As a result, the introduction of next generation communication standards (e.g., 3GPP LTE-A, IEEE 802.16m) has led to improved techniques for data processing, such as carrier aggregation (e.g., 100 MHz) with 8×8 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and CoMP (Co-Operative Multi-Point). This in turn has created the need for radio access networks capable of handling wider bandwidths and an increasing number of antennas. These radio access networks will require a higher numbers of fiber links to connect the base stations to the remote radio units. In addition, it is desirable to provide carrier aggregation with Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) and Co-Operative Multipoint (CoMP) techniques to significantly increase spectral efficiency. The implementation of Co-Operative Multipoint techniques requires communication between the baseband units and requires an increasing number of optical or wireless links between the baseband units and the radio units to support the increased data rate achievable with these improved transmission schemes. The increasing number of links required for these techniques results in an undesirable increased infrastructure cost.
Compression techniques can be used to reduce the infrastructure cost by reducing the number of optical or wireless links required to transmit the data as well as by optimizing resources. Compression techniques require the estimation of real-time compression parameters be applied during the compression of the data in order to achieve a target compression ratio. At any point in time, the deviation of the average achieved compression ratio from a user programmable target compression ratio must be bounded within an acceptable margin, while still maintaining an acceptable low-level of data degradation.
Utilizing the compression techniques currently known in the art, it is difficult to achieve an average compression ratio with reasonable signal degradation while also keeping the latency jitter low. Compression techniques known in the art are unable to meet a user programmable compression target while still maintaining a low-level of data degradation and an acceptable peak compression jitter with respect to the user programmable target compression ratio.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for data compression that adapts to the continually changing, and often unpredictable, behavior of the received data signal resulting from the aggregation of multiple carriers and channels, thereby providing a compressed data signal having a reasonable level of latency jitter and an acceptable level of performance degradation.